Is "Finding Happiness" the next new trend?

If we could only wake up one day and say "I am happy! I am really happy!" How possible this is? How easy is to switch mindset? How easy is to stop unhappy noises in your head and around you? How easy is to stop accusing other factors, people or situations for your own un-happiness? You will have probably think: This is how I am, I was born  seeing the glass half-empty." So with all these questions in mind, and more, i started looking for answers. My search land me to an online course. The subject: "The science of Well-being" by professor Laurie Santos. Well, apparently finding happiness is in the bucket list of million people, that they are in the hunt of how to touch, feel, achieve it, because by now almost 2.5 million have sign up to this course! Making it the most popular course in the history of Yale university!  And there is a reason apart from the "Stay at home" orders .This course is the best start you can make if you are in the look out for ways to achieve happiness! And keeps on giving you more than the answers you are looking for...

Of course I am not going to ruin and give away too much for the one in the lifetime experience of taking this course! But apparently, and according with the researchers and the course, happiness is 50% genetic, 40% your thoughts and actions and 10% what life brings. Happiness, and how you find it is such a big deal that Positive Psychology was born, and there is even a yearly independent publication called World happiness report, where experts from different fields measure and analyze the Happiness levels of 158 countries.  They are doing this by observing 8 important factors:

How happiness is affected by the countries GPA - money situation

 

The life expectancy of the population

 

The social support

 

The level of freedom to make individual choices

 

Generosity

 

Perception of corruption

 

Positive affect: How people are feeling for their previous day (happiness, joy, laugh)

 

Negative affect: A reflection of the negative feelings they had the day before.

 

The results of this publication are always very interesting, and say a lot about the emotional situation of the population in every country. 

If you have been following the happiness talk, you will often hear that the Scandinavian and North European populations are usually the happiest. But what is going on in the US? An interesting fact that experts found in their last years research, was, and i am quoting from Jean M. Twenge, Author of iGen, San Diego State University and participant in the Happiness report

 

"This decline in happiness and mental health seems paradoxical. By most accounts, Americans should be happier now than ever. The violent crime rate is low, as is the unemployment rate. Income per capita has steadily grown over the last few decades. This is the Easterlin paradox: As the standard of living improves, so should happiness – but it has not.....

 

and he adds specifically for the US adolescents:

 

"During the same time period that digital media use increased, adolescents began to spend less time interacting with each other in person, including getting together with friends, socializing, and going to parties. In 2016, iGen college-bound high school seniors spent an hour less a day on face-to-face interaction than GenX adolescents did in the late 1980s (Twenge et al., 2019). Thus, the way adolescents socialize has fundamentally shifted, moving toward online activities and away from face-to-face social interaction."

 

 Well, we all have heard somewhere about how social media and technology can ruin our personal interactions and how much interferes in our kids lives and their  psyche.  The thing is that we have connected happiness with all the wrong things.

 Our world, and our media, are pushing and linking happiness with stuff, with titles, with ideal jobs, with perfect physical appearance, with perfect homes, lifestyles, partners, 3 figure bank accounts. But happiness is not all these. Happiness is a state of mind, is a choice, is a way of life, is an action of selfcare. 

Finding happiness needs a lot of work, Constant work. It is not a trend that came and will leave. Is a need, is essential for our mental health.  You can't stop investing when you finally feel you have concord your goal. You just have to keep practicing, keep showing up, keep making the right choices. The more you simplify your life, and your actions, the more organic you become, and the more you come in terms with your humility, then and there, you will realize that the happiness was hiding behind all these since the beginning. She was profoundly sitting in front of your eyes, waiting until you finally decide to focus and see it. 

Happiness is only few steps and practices away and these is my take away from the course, and also a bit of a wisdom it gave me, and hopefully will put in action:  

• Being mindful and remember to savor what the day will bring
• Act kindly as often as you can, it will fill your soul, and spread so much goodness. 
• Use and cultivate  your strengths, nurture and love your qualities.
•  Be grateful about the small and the big things in your life. Don't take anything for granted, appreciate, and feel thankful.
•  Connect with your body, and feel how much your brain, soul and body are related and reacting. As the Ancient Greeks were saying " Healthy body, healthy mind". 
• Quite your mind. Make meditation or prayer part of your routine.
•  Interact, communicate, do not afraid to feel and share with the others around you. 
• Do not deprive and exhaust yourself by not having a proper sleep rhythm. Resting and giving time to the body and brain to heal and recharge will give long term positive results.

In this journey to learn and find happiness what made me really happy and hopeful was that I saw and met so many other people out there that are actively taking things in their hands and actually working towards happiness. This course was more than a lesson for so many of us, it has change us forever. 

Stay well! 

XoXo